How to Improve Member Experience

One of the biggest missed opportunities I see for member-based organisations and professional associations? Using LinkedIn like a noticeboard keeping it filled with event reminders, internal news, and media releases. The real value lies in the intersection of where your members and your organisation show up together. Your members are already out there: speaking at conferences, leading change, mentoring others. They’re growing their networks and shaping ideas. But often, that’s happening separately from their involvement with your association. That’s the opportunity. When members are supported to show up as professionals and as contributors to your organisation, everyone benefits. ✔️ Members grow their visibility and credibility without needing to become ‘content creators’ ✔️ Your organisation gains reach and trust through respected voices ✔️ Your brand becomes a living, visible community - not just a logo or LinkedIn Page So how do you bring that intersection to life? 1️⃣ Share LinkedIn guidelines – give members clarity and confidence. Many professionals are open to being active online, but they hesitate because they’re unsure what’s appropriate. They don’t want to misrepresent the organisation or overstep. A simple, practical set of LinkedIn guidelines can remove that uncertainty. 2️⃣ Encourage profile alignment – show them how to reflect their involvement. Member profiles are often a missed opportunity. Even the most engaged professionals may leave their connection to the association off their headline or experience section not because they’re not proud, but because they’re unsure how it fits. Encourage members to update their profiles to include their roles whether it’s a board position, committee membership, or even long-term involvement. Give them examples of how to phrase it. 3️⃣ Shine a light on members – celebrate achievements, share stories Recognition matters. When members are featured by their association, it affirms their work and signals to others that the organisation values its people. 4️⃣ Provide shareable content – make it easy for them to engage Some members might struggle to create original content regularly. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to participate. Make it easy to re-share or comment. A member is far more likely to amplify something if it reflects both their values and their expertise. 5️⃣ Run a digital confidence session – help them show up, their way. Confidence is often the missing piece. Many professionals worry about being “too promotional” or “saying the wrong thing.” . A digital confidence session is a practical way to support them. LinkedIn can be the place where your members grow their reputation. It’s where your organisation becomes known through trusted voices. And it’s where together, you shape the future of your industry not just behind closed doors, but in full view of the professionals you’re trying to reach. #linkedin

15,000+ loyalty program members. Only 800 were actually engaged. That's the harsh reality Sarah faced when she called us at Vajro. She's the founder of a premium skincare brand, and she was bleeding money. "We're spending thousands on points and discounts, but customers still leave after two purchases." I've heard this story way too many times. Sarah was making the classic mistake: treating all customers the same. But here's what the data revealed → 60% of her revenue came from just 20% of customers. These weren't just buyers. They were SuperFans. So instead of chasing the silent 14,200, we focused on the passionate 800. Here's exactly what we built: → A mobile app that gave SuperFans VIP access → Personalized product recommendations based on purchase history → Early access to new launches through push notifications → One-tap reordering of their favorite products The results after 6 months? Those 800 SuperFans increased their average order value by 40%. Their purchase frequency doubled. But here's the real win: they started bringing friends. SuperFans don't just buy more. They become your marketing team. While competitors were still blasting generic discount emails, Sarah's SuperFans were getting personalized experiences that made them feel valued. The lesson? Stop trying to activate everyone. Start by activating the customers who already love you. Your SuperFans are waiting. The question is: are you ready to give them the experience they deserve?

MEMBERS ONLY: a new interview series by me, exploring the minds behind the world’s most sought-after experiences. My friend Molly Bridges is making the case for a role most events completely overlook: A dedicated host. As a master of experience design and the Senior Director of Events & Experiences at Bilt Rewards, Molly is behind some of the best events in NYC and SF. But it’s not just good taste, it’s strategy. She engineers these gatherings with a mix of psychology, hospitality, and her background in education, making sure every detail is designed for connection. We got deep into the nuances of event design and how Molly applies Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to design experiences that actually make people feel something. At the core of Molly’s approach is a simple truth: Adults are a lot like kids. We crave routine, structure, and clear expectations, and if those things aren’t in place, no amount of fancy decor will save your event. The Five Needs to Address for a Well-Designed Event 1️⃣ Physiological Needs (The Basics) If your guests are texting you day of asking what to wear or where to go, you've already lost them. Great events start before they even show up, with clear, actually helpful communication. Tell them what to wear, where to go, when to arrive, and make it easy. Email marketing isn’t just for hype; it’s there to eliminate confusion. If people are second-guessing the details, the event is already off to a bad start. 2️⃣ Safety (Feeling Comfortable & Welcome) First impressions set the tone. Signage should be obvious, ppl should never feel lost in the space physically and they should feel connected emotionally. That means a host that knows their name, greets them at the enterance. Take a page from Anna Wintour, who has an assistant at every event whispering key guest intel in her ear. A great host isn’t just friendly, they’re prepared. Know people's names, greet them like they matter, and watch how the energy of the entire event shifts. 3️⃣ Love & Belonging (Fostering Connection & Community) Smart seating makes or breaks a room(see my Members Only on Jake Sacks). Structured intros cut the awkwardness, and intentional space design, cozy nooks, group seating, natural gathering spots, does the rest. No forced networking, just effortless conversation. 4️⃣ Esteem Needs (Ensuring People Feel Seen & Valued) An event should exceed expectations. Deliver what you promised…Did guests meet someone interesting? Did they gain what they came for and more? Whether it’s networking, learning, or community-building, the experience should feel intentional and worth their time. 5️⃣ Self-Actualization (Scaling Magic While Keeping It Personal) Anyone can pull off one great event. The real challenge? Scaling experiences without losing intimacy. A strong brand identity and structured playbook ensure that every gathering feels personal, even at scale. 🔹 🔹 🔹 If you’re not already following Molly Bridges, you should be.

Here's a story highlighting how you can improve a community without any significant changes. 👇 In one client project, members complained about the community's navigation. They said it was impossible to find what they were looking for. They often felt lost. They struggled to follow and find the discussions they had participated in. The community team had been trying everything to fix the problem. They had redesigned and simplified the homepage, created onboarding journeys, and used every feature their platform offered to help members find what they wanted. This had helped a little, but it was still the number one problem members complained about. We took a different approach. Instead of making it easier to find each feature in the community, we simply removed the majority of them. → Every feature not used by at least 30% of active members was removed. → Any category which wasn’t attracting several hundred posts per month was archived/merged with other categories. → Any page not visited by at least 1k people per month was deleted (except for terms and conditions). → Any member who hadn’t visited within the past two years was notified and removed. → Only two of the 20+ groups had any meaningful activity level, so we created a discussion category for this and removed groups as a feature. → Any discussion which 50+ people hadn’t visited within the past year was archived. → We even removed the majority of options from member profiles too. → We reduced the navigation menu from 8 options (with drop-down sub-menus) to just 3 (without sub-menus). Three things immediately happened. 1️⃣ Navigation dropped from the number one cited problem in the community to the 4th. 2️⃣ The level of participation increased by an average of 22% year on year. 3️⃣ Search traffic increased by 17% year on year. The key to improving navigation (and the entire member experience) in most mature communities is not improving the quality of maps but reducing the number of roads. It’s harder to get lost when there are fewer places to go.

In 2020, we launched our first paid online community, SPI Pro, with 500 founding members...and we made some mistakes. You see, community building is a different game from audience building. It's not a one-to-many broadcast; it’s creating a safe space where many-to-many conversations thrive. In "Lean Learning" fashion, we learned from our mistakes while diving head first into this world, and we were able to find solutions to the tough challenges we faced. Here are 3 mistakes and how we solved for them: 1️⃣ Overwhelm Happens Fast We had tons of resources and events lined up – but quickly realized people felt overwhelmed and stretched too thin. Members felt they had to "do it all" to get value. The fix? 👉 We revamped our onboarding to guide members on how to find their pockets of value without feeling like they need to engage with everything. Now, we teach members to embrace what serves them and let the rest go. 2️⃣ Don’t Underestimate Time Zones Our events were originally one-off, live-only sessions. Turns out, that doesn’t work when you’re serving a global community! We adapted by: 👉Hosting multiple sessions for key events to cover more timezones. 👉For our Ask Me Anything events, we converted a 1-hour live event to a 24-hour asynchronous thread to allow for anyone at anytime to get a "real time" answer – with the expectation that answers would, at the latest, come in by the end of the day. 👉Offering recordings so members can learn on their own time, and positioning live events as valuable content that will remain in the community, and if you happen to be able to make it live, that's a bonus. 3️⃣ Engagement Needs a Nudge We assumed engagement would happen naturally after careful planning, and proper onboarding. Spoiler: It doesn’t! We had to get intentional about connection. Our solutions? 👉Tagging members in responses to jump-start replies 👉Launching a mastermind matching program 👉Co-creating with members to build spaces and resources they truly want Community building takes effort, iteration, and a strong focus on human connection. But the payoff has been incredible. When I get a chance to meet members in person (which we hope to facilitate even more in the near future), hearing their stories brings it all full circle – and reminds me why community is worth every tweak and adjustment. 💬 Have any community-building questions? Drop them below – I’d love to help!

Notice a gap? What do you do about it? Do you wait for a solution or create it yourself? I noticed a need within the community space and had to find a way to fill it. How did I know? By getting to know my members. I asked what they needed-> surveys, one-on-ones, emails,... Need: Community members wanted to connect. Goal: To bring them together in a common spot. Problem: No common place to gather virtually. To gain more support: Spoke with active users (whom I built relationships with) to contribute and help me promote the event. *Solution: Set up a monthly recurring virtual meet-up -> 'Connect CommUnity' *Benefits from this meetup ↳Members became friends online & offline ↳Learned more about each other & built trust ↳Collaborated at events & in projects together ↳IRL connections happened (picture in comments) Impact of it? ↳Enhanced customer experience ↳Members were excited to hang out ↳Established meaningful relationships ↳Members felt appreciated and heard ↳Over time, members started to host the meet-ups. The beauty of it all? I got to see this all unfold and witness the amazing connections form. Gain more insight into what they needed by listening to their conversations. And continually help create a better environment for them all. ⭐ If you don't see a way to solve a problem, create the solution instead. You don't need to wait for a large crowd to get started. Start with what you have and add on. (If you need help, ask your members)

Most community onboarding programs are trash. They’re designed from the point of view of the people running the community, or even worse, the software platform itself. A recent research paper demonstrates how a self-mapping method flips onboarding on its head, placing members’ POV & experience at the heart of the community. Researchers studied how online peer support communities could alleviate social isolation and loneliness affecting 61% of US adults. They discovered peer community programs could effectively combat loneliness, depression, anxiety and improve health-related quality of life among diverse lonely adults. The study used the Wisdo Health* platform for the online program, and their self-mapping onboarding exercise was key. The initial experience helped new members feel seen and ensured long-term involvement In this initial exercise, users selected if they've "been there" or are "there now" for 25 to 35 common community-sourced challenges and milestones in their chosen community group. On average, members chose 20 of these "been there" or "there now" milestones in each sub-community they joined. Since members joined an average of 6 sub-communties, this onboarding exercise provided 120 detailed & relevant data points that could be used to personalize the experience. Just as important, as members made each choice, they could see how many others on the platform made the same choice. This helped them feel like they belonged and would find emotionally supportive connections. This study shows how innovative onboarding exercises can help new members find their niche and feel connected from day one. Check out the full paper in the comments. Hopefully it can help inspire new ways to encourage members to map out their interests and goals, and give them the tools to discover their people.

Build a strong community. 5 steps for member-led growth: 1. Awareness Goal: Attract potential members and introduce them to your community. ↳ Use content marketing like blog posts and social media to show the community's value. ↳ Invest in online ads that reach your ideal audience. ↳ Partner with relevant communities and influencers to expand your reach. ↳ Engage in discussions on forums and platforms where your audience hangs out. 2. Acquisition Goal: Convert interested individuals into community members. ↳ Make joining easy with a simple registration process. ↳ Offer welcome gifts or incentives to new members. ↳ Showcase the benefits of joining, like exclusive content and networking opportunities. ↳ Highlight positive testimonials from current members to build trust. 3. Engagement Goal: Keep members active and involved in the community. ↳ Facilitate discussions through forums, Q&As, and polls to encourage interaction. ↳ Host online and offline events, such as webinars and meetups. ↳ Create valuable content that meets the needs and interests of your members. ↳ Recognize and reward active members to boost participation. 4. Retention Goal: Encourage continued participation and prevent members from leaving. ↳ Build a sense of belonging and ownership among members. ↳ Provide ongoing support and useful resources. ↳ Offer exclusive benefits and opportunities for loyal members. ↳ Continuously gather feedback to improve the community experience. 5. Advocacy Goal: Turn satisfied members into brand advocates. ↳ Empower members to share their experiences and create content. ↳ Run referral programs and offer incentives for advocacy. ↳ Feature member stories and testimonials to highlight success. ↳ Provide leadership roles and opportunities for members to contribute. Follow these steps to create a thriving community. Without this, your community may struggle to grow and succeed.